Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!

Last summer, Teresa Dank, a third-grade teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, gained national attention after she beganpanhandling
to raise money for her classroom. Like many other teachers in a state
with some of the lowest education spending in the country, Dank was at
her wit’s end. Her frustration came to a head two weeks ago, following
yet another failed legislative attempt to increase teacher pay. And so
she started anonline petition,
asking for signatures from those who would support a walkout by
teachers. Soon another Oklahoma teacher named Alberto Morejon launched aFacebook group to mobilize fellow educators for a walkout, quickly drawing tens of thousands of members.

The increasing momentum for a strike in Oklahoma comes as a strike by
West Virginia teachers entered its ninth consecutive school day on
Tuesday. State lawmakers, hoping to bring the strike to an end, reached a deal on Tuesday morning to raise all state employee salaries by 5 percent. Oklahoma’s 42,000 teachers make even less than their West Virginian counterparts; in 2016, the average Oklahoma teacher earned$45,276,
a salary lower than that of teachers in every state except Mississippi.
With no pay increases for Sooner State teachers in a decade, educators
have been leaving for greener pastures, moving to neighboring states
like Arkansas, New Mexico, Kansas, and Texas. Last May, Shawn Sheehan,
Oklahoma’s 2016 Teacher of the Year, announced that he would bemoving to Texas for more financial stability.

Per-pupil spending in Oklahoma stands at $8,075, among the lowest in the country.

As it so often goes, when times are
tough for teachers, times are also tough for students. Per-pupil
spending in Oklahoma stands at $8,075, among the lowest in the country
and lower than all ofOklahoma’s neighboring states.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities puts Oklahoma’s cuts to
general education funding since the recession as the highest in the
nation, with 28 percent of the state’s per-pupil funding cut over the
last decade. Things have gotten so bad thatnearly 100 school districts across the state hold classesjust four days a week to save money.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Strikes by Oklahoma school employeesare technically illegal,
but educators have found a legal work-around. If school districts shut
down, then that’s a work stoppage that doesn’t involve teachers walking
off the job. Many superintendents across the state have already come out
in support of closing down schools if the teachers decide to move
forward with their strike.Teachers point to a four-day strike
from nearly three decades ago, when more than half of Oklahoma educators
stayed home from school. This successful 1990 protest prompted the
legislature to raise teacher pay, institute class-size limits, and
expand kindergarten offerings.“Nothing else has worked over the last
two to three years, so at this point teachers, parents, and community
members are desperate for a solution,” said Amber England, a longtime
Oklahoma education advocate. “This is what they’re thinking is the last
resort. They don’t want to do it, but they really don’t feel like they
have any other option.”

Why Aren’t Teachers Getting a Raise?

Educators were optimistic that things
were going to change in 2016. The Republican-controlled legislature
promised it’d pass a teacher pay increase, but in the end they failed to
get anything done. Later that same year, a high-profile ballot
initiative went before voters to increase the state sales tax by 1
percent, to give all teachers a $5,000 pay increase.But that measure also ended up failing miserably, garneringjust over 40 percent
of the vote. Republicans in the state opposed taxes going up, and many
Democrats also opposed the measure because a sales tax would have hit
the poor the hardest.In 2017, the legislature promised yet
again to pass a teacher pay raise, adjourning in the end with nothing to
show for it. A measure to raise teacher and state employee salaries
funded by a tax on cigarettes, motor vehicle fuel, and beer failed 54-44 in October.“Time after time, there’s just been
terrible cuts, broken promises, and no legislative action or
leadership,” England told The Intercept.Justlike in Kansas,
Oklahoma’s leaders have been slashing taxes, finding that this then
leaves them with less money to fund basic government services. Aside from reducingincome taxes
for its wealthiest citizens in 2013, Oklahoma legislators voted in 2014
to extend major oil industry tax cuts that were set to expire in 2015.
The drilling tax, known as the “gross production tax,” or GPT, had been
set at 7 percent in the 1970s, but in the early 1990s, when horizontal
drilling first came on the scene, the then-Democratic controlled
legislature reduced it down to 1 percent, to help encourage
experimentation with the new technology.

Oklahoma’s
leaders have been slashing taxes, finding that this then leaves them
with less money to fund basic government services.

Mickey Thompson, who worked as the
president of Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association between 1991 and
2005, told The Intercept that the GPT reduction was important back then
because horizontal drilling was “really new, untested, unproven, and
expensive.” Thompson helped push for the tax reduction in the ’90s, but
today has become one of the state’s most vocal advocates for raising it
back up to 7 percent, because, he said, by now everyone knows that
horizontal drilling easily pays for itself. “These cuts were never
supposed to be permanent,” Thompson said.The GPT was supposed to return back to
7 percent in 2015, but Republicans instead made the tax cuts permanent
at 2 percent, a notably lower rate than other oil-producing states.

The Step Up Plan

Following all the legislative failures and the ballot measure failure, a group of influential business leaders in Oklahomagot together in December to formulate a last-ditch effort to push something through. The elite bipartisan coalition, dubbed Step Up Oklahoma,unveiled their proposals
in January, advocating modest revenue hikes on GPT, motor fuel,
cigarettes, and eliminating a few income tax deductions. Hailed as a
grand compromise, the Step Up plan would have generated enough revenue
to give all teachers a $5,000 pay raise. All five of Oklahoma’s former
living governorsendorsed the plan, as did thestate’s teachers union. But when legislators voted on the package in mid-February, ittoo failed,
with 17 Democrats and 18 Republicans voting against the measure. Some
Republicans argued this was Oklahoma’s last real shot at reaching a
compromise this year, but other Democrats said they don’t buy that this
is the best deal they could reach.Rep. Forrest Bennett, a first-term Democrat representing Oklahoma City, was among those who voted against the Step Up plan.“There was a hell of a lot of pressure
on us to pass it, and I’ve gotten a lot of shit for voting no, but this
package was pretty flawed from the start,” he told The Intercept.
Bennett noted that aside from teacher pay increases, the Step Up deal
contained a number of regressive taxes and pushed only for doubling the
GPT up to 4 percent. In October, a new nonprofit, Restore Oklahoma Now, formed to push for a 2018ballot measure
that would hike the GPT back up to 7 percent and direct the majority of
new revenue to schools and teachers. That effort is being led by
Thompson, the former OIPA president.“We felt we needed to get GPT to at
least 5 percent,” Bennett explained. “We were being dictated to by this
private business owner group, and as long as that 7 percent ballot
initiative is looming, we think we will have more opportunities to push
for alternatives.”England, who had been helping the
Oklahoma Education Association mobilize support for the Step Up plan,
emphasized that it’s been increasingly difficult to reach any sort of
bipartisan agreement. “Compromise is not the politically correct
position anymore,” she told The Intercept.

Strike As a Last Resort

For many teachers, the legislature’s
failure to pass the Step Up plan was the last straw. Dank launched her
petition a week after the failed vote, capitalizing on the frustration
of thousands of teachers whose classrooms have been underfunded for far
too long. Different dates are floating around
for a potential strike. One scenario is to strike on April 2, the same
time that students are scheduled to take their mandatory standardized
tests. Failing to take those tests could mean Oklahoma sacrifices
millions of dollars in federal funds. Organizers are calling this the “nuclear option.”
Another possibility is to shut down schools the week following spring
break, which would be the week before standardized testing. The Oklahoma
Education Association plans to hold a press conference Thursday
afternoon to unveil a “detailed revenue package and a statewide closure
strategy.” NewsOK, a local news outlet, reported
that nearly 80 percent of respondents to an online survey administered
by the Oklahoma Educators Association voiced support for school closures
to force lawmakers to increase educational investments. Thompson, the leader behind the GPT
ballot initiative, worries a teacher walkout will damage public support
for educators in the state. “I think a majority of teachers understand
what we’re trying to do [with our initiative], but their morale is very
low, and they are beyond frustrated,” he said. He acknowledges, though,
that his concerns “are falling on deaf ears” and that “teachers are
ready to try anything.”
For his part, Thompson thinks the ballot initiative he’s leading
stands a better shot at passage than the failed 2016 penny tax.
“Teachers have gone two more years without a pay raise, and the public
has been talking about it for all this time now,” he said. “There is
just more public support for a teacher raise than two years ago.”

“Teachers have gone two more years without a pay raise, and the public has been talking about it for all this time now.”

Thompson also thinks the fact that his
proposed ballot initiative would raise revenue without raising taxes on
everyone else will help secure its passage. “Conservatives don’t want
to raise state sales tax, liberals don’t want a regressive tax, but our
deal is not a sales tax — it’s a tax on the oil and gas industry, trying
to take away their sweetheart deal that was passed 20 years ago,” he
said.Their ballot initiative isn’t a done
deal yet, though; they haven’t even begun collecting the necessary
123,000 signatures. Last week,they defended their ballot initiative at Oklahoma’s Supreme Court, and now they’re waiting for the court’s approval to move forward.“The court can take as long as they
please to give us a decision on whether we’re valid or whether we’re
kicked to the curb,” Thompson explained. “We’re not officially a ballot
initiative until we get their approval, but we’re feeling confident.”Democrats remain convinced that all the mounting pressurewill create more opportunities
for lawmakers to push forward alternative revenue packages this
legislative season. Bennett said the threat of a 7 percent GPT ballot
initiative, a statewide teacher walkout, and a potential blue wave for
Democrats across the country in November, will help keep pressure up in
the legislature.“The Step Up coalition made people
feel like their deal was the last shot, but it’s not,” he said. “What
they did do was engage a lot of people, and now a lot more are really
frustrated and are paying attention.”

Top photo: Students at Edison Preparatory School
stage a walkout to protest the lack of funding for teachers at the
school in Tulsa, Okla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018.

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I think the real left like Bernie etc does support aspects. Trump makes some sense to me at times. Your priobkem is you don't differentiate the left and confuse liberals with the left. The NY Times MSNBC etc are not left but neo liberals. As are our union leaders. Watch West Virginia Oklahoma etc as Teachers in trump territory revolt.

I'm not confusing neo liberalism with what the left to me . They were the workers grounded in economic issues. Forty hour week. fighting capitalism. Living wages, and good work conditions. Anti war (because all wars are bankers wars. The so called left are the cultural, social justice warriors, who have abandoned economic justice for politcal correctness.

Leave it to History and the Gods of Irony to throw a curve at everyone, especially #resistance liberals: how are they going to cope with the fact that so many "deplorable" Trump-voting teachers are engaging in far more risky and militant actions, which will provide far more concrete material benefits to working people, than missing brunch for a demonstration and wearing a pussy hat?

My guess is that they will do what they always do when thrown a curve: they'll whiff.

Maybe the Trump voters/strikers are against the "swamp"- entrenched politicians who are not helping improved their constituent's lives. And lets face it, the contract offered to the WV teachers was horrible-can you imagine getting a health insurance break only if you wear a device and reveal your personal health information?

Comments are welcome. Irrelevant and abusive comments will be deleted, as will all commercial links. Comment moderation is on, so if your comment does not appear it is because I have not been at my computer (I do not do cell phone moderating).

UFT Election Vote Comparison: 2004-10

A Personal Historical Perspective

Why Karen Lewis Reads Ed Notes

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Hedges says, There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history.

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

GEM's Julie Cavanagh Debates E4E member on NY1 on LIFO and Seniority

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy TysonProfessor of African American Studies and HistoryDuke University

A Familiar Voice on Unions

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike"- Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Outsource our children

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping by Norm Scott

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

From Sharon Higgins

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Video of Chicago's George Schmidt and CORE Shredding Arne Duncan and the Chicago Corporate Model

Great Post on Teacher Quality at the Morton School

I'm very tired of the myth that schools are bursting at the seams with apathetic, unskilled, surly, child-hating losers who can't get jobs doing anything else. I recently figured that, counting high school and college where one encounters many teachers in the course of a year, I had well over 100 teachers in my lifetime, and I can only say that one or two truly had no place being in a classroom.